re: Daily CrossFit Thread: Workouts and other musings..

Wodapalooza 2024

Event 1
3RFT
7 Rope climbs (split however)
30 TTB (one dead hang, one works, one rests)
180' Wheelbarrow walks
60' Synchro SA DB OH Lunges (two work, one rests)

Thought we had a plan that would allow us to plow through the TTB which was the sticking point of the event, but we burned out in round 2.

The rope was cut and taped off the floor (smart to prevent injuries on the descent), and if you're not used to J-hooking with a rope that you can easily knock away from your feet (I wasn't), then the climbs would go slower than expected.

Some miscommunication on the 180' wheel barrow walks. It was down and back 3x and one of my guys jumped the gun and started for the lunges after we hit the first 60'.

Crashed and burned as we wilted in the 2nd round. Poor planning and anxiousness to plow through the event did us in.

Event 2
360' Sandbag Carry (120' each)
12-9-6 Sandbag Cleans then Squats (relay style 12 each, 9 then 6)
360' Sandbag Carry buy out

Fun quick event, some no-reps (hip extension on the squats going too fast) cost us time but we led the heat. If we avoid the no-reps, we probably shave 10-15 seconds and are 4-5 spots higher in this event overall.

Event 3
5K Trail Run in Virginia Key (All run and your time is the aggregate total)

Poor decision by the event planners to have us run off-site at Virginia Key on what was obviously a mountain bike trail. Extremely narrow in several spots and rocks of various sizes were strewn all along the trail. I rolled my ankle (caught myself before it was too bad) in the first 1K and slowed considerably. Tried picking up the pace later and rolled it again; basically a stroll for me the rest of the way.

Several hospital trips for bad injuries; even some perennial CFG athletes were knocked out for the weekend.

Event 4
10 Worm Clean and Jerks
Athlete 1 Swims
Athlete 2 & 3 perform 50 synchro burpees over the worm
10 Worm C&Js
Athlete 2 Swims
Athlete 1 & 3 perform 50 synchro burpees over the worm
10 Worm C&Js
Athlete 3 Swims
Athlete 1 & 2 perform 50 synchro burpees over the worm
3 Worm C&Js

Our best event finish. Could have had a T10 here but our 3rd swimmer had a brain fart and ran off to start swimming before we hit the last set of 10 C&Js. Lost about a minute.

This one I did barefoot, not realizing the stress on my big toes on the burpees. Ripped the skin off the L toe on the first 50 burpees and ripped the R toe after my swim during the final set of 50 burpees.

Won the heat of 20 teams with several minutes to spare even with the snafu of our 3rd swimmer. Bled all over the floor and went to the medical tent to get taped up for our final event of the day.

I was going to start my own new thread to discuss what I'm doing, but I decided to bomb in on y'alls CrossFit™ Thread because what I'm doing is in this "neighborhood". This is a novel of a post, after this one I'll be shorter and sweeter, but I wanted to lay out my rationale and backstory for why I'm basically homebrewing my own "cross-fit" style workouts.

I've tried CrossFit™ in the past and failed miserably at it. I am not physically capable of doing these WOD™ workouts.
"So,... that's no problem, just scale it." says Mr. Crossfit™ Coach. So I scaled it, and I still couldn't do it. I found myself spending way too much time sucking wind, laying on the ground, just dying. And it's expensive to do this. I'd show up, do a little mobility/stretching, maybe some technical practice on a particular move/lift, and then the WOD™ where I'd find myself on a knee or on my back, recovering for several minutes before I can do anything again. In the end, I'd estimate that anywhere from 50-75% of the WOD™ session for me was eaten up by heavy breathing and the inability to participate due to gross fatigue, and too often the WOD™ would include things that I just wasn't able to do at all, no matter how well recovered. I didn't blame the coaches (maybe I should, I don't know, but it's not my style), or CrossFit™, I only blamed myself. It was embarrassing and demoralizing. I learned that being able to "scale" for yourself takes greater skill than I had originally thought, but I also felt that if I "scaled appropriately" that I'd be doing such a chopped down version of what the coaches were assigning to the class that I really felt like I had no business being there in the first place.

My plan for years has been to try this out again and avenge myself against this kind of training and finally prove to myself that I am capable of doing this kind of high intensity conditioning work, I just need it perfectly tailored down to whatever my level is. I've finally laid a good foundation for myself with other gentler forms of conditioning, and it's time to start doing my own WODs™, if they should be called that, and I don't need to be joining up at any Box™ anytime soon, I can accomplish what I need to at my garage/home setup, and I can do it for free, in a manner that allows me to avoid feeling like a fat, disgusting failure that can't do anything.

First attempt at creating a WOD™ came out with this,
I named it "Courier"
4 rounds for time:
a) 100 jump ropes (single under)
b) 400 meter ruck with 30lbs in the pack, while carrying my 44lb kettlebell in my hand or hands the entire time, I can switch hands and carry it anyway I want just so long as I hold in with my hands/arms the entire time.
c) 10 burpees
d) front squat to OHP with 135lb x 8

Well, this sounded good, but I did a little testing beforehand on the day before I planned to do this, and after some thinking this was probably too ambitious, so I scaled my own WOD™ that I wrote for myself before I even attempted it! See? This shite is hard. I'm kidding, I didn't consider this scaling. I considered it "editing" and it was a wise decision. I basically chopped it in half. As I progress in my abilities I'll move more towards the first version of this WOD™, but for day #1 this was great and I feel I got great results and feedback from doing it.
Second attempt at "Courier"
2 rounds for time:
a) 50 jump ropes(single under)
b) 200 meter ruck with 30lbs in the pack and carrying the 44lb kettlebell
c) 10 burpees
d) front squat to OHP with 95lb x 5

I finished in 20:11, this was what I wanted to do, about 20 minutes as intense as I could go, and I wanted to craft a combination of elements that were highly challenging but wouldn't cripple me and put me on the ground for 50% of the session. I can skip rope okay, 50 is about my threshold for reps though before I start to hit my foot/ankle due to fatigue and getting out of sync. I was able to do both rounds of 50 reps without stopping either from running out of breath or hitting my foot. Threw on the pack and picked up the KB and took off for my marker, this segment was the toughest for me and I felt miserable the entire time. Haven't breathed like this in a long time, but that's what I was wanting to create. Something that took me right up to MY threshold and maybe a little bit over, but not too much that I'd have to take a protracted rest period. I was able to push myself to continuously move over 200 meters, although the second trip just about killed me. After a short(approx 30sec) rest I started in on my 10 burpees and was able to get 10 done in about 90 seconds each time. The front squats to OHP were the only part that was too easy, I could have handled the 135lb x 8, but I was worried because I have bad form with front squats due to poor ankle and wrist mobility. It's something I need to keep working on but I was able to do this just fine. Overall I was pleased with how close to my max abilities this kept me for the 20 minutes. My watch and HR monitor tell me I was in zone 4 for 11:48 and Zone 3 for 5:52, that's almost 18 minutes of a HR over 125, not a bad show for the first outing. The overall pace was outstanding, very little recovering during the workout. I would estimate my total recovery time during this entire workout was between 2-3 minutes. It was mostly just the work and the suffering and that's exactly what I wanted. I feel like I'll get a lot out of this and I'll be better for it.

The plan will be to do these WODs™ on Tuesdays and this is another place where I will make a sharp departure from how CrossFit™ seems to program, I will do the same exact WOD™ next Tuesday(04/16), and the next Tuesday(04/23), and the next Tuesday(04/30. If I can beat this week's time next week and keep improving my time over 3 weeks then I'll go for the full 4 rounds or I'll write another WOD™ and work on that one for another month.

If I can manage to reproduce this experience over and over I will consider it a success.

I just finished my second week and it is certainly tough, especially since I'm just getting back in after a 5 month layoff. I'm working with the owner and working on a fat loss/muscle gain goal over 15 weeks. The first week my legs were fried and this past week was my back/triceps. Just doing the workouts and eating clean I can see a difference and don't feel so bloated. Ready to see how far I can take this 45 yr old body.

Staring back in CF..

Will add workouts here.

quote:

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raw strength put me in a habit of just muscling up everything

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Welcome to my world

I'm going to make it a point to get much better in my snatch movement and my kipping rhythm when doing TTB, CTB, etc.

I'm killing my times and zapping my energy by just relying on my strength and not developing form and rhythm.

As an example...yesterday in class, we did a 12 min AMRAP. 3 - power snatches at 135 lbs, and 15 wall balls. Basically, on the snatches, I did a clean movement to my face and pressed 3 times overhead. I can do that without issue, but it's not the smart thing to do.

What kills me on snatches, especially squat snatches, is the mental block I have (especially with higher weight) with dropping under the weight after I shrug it to it's highest point. After eight months of CrossFit, it's still hard to get out of the bro lift mindset. Technical lifts are my Achilles heel.

Missed yesterday's WOD, so I did it today during open gym.

Got primed a little first with some single arm dumbbell OHC's, and some strict HSPU's.


3 rounds:

70 lb DB's SOHC - 50 meters per arm
10 strict HSPU's

5 rounds for time:

2 wall walks
4 shuttle runs (50 feet total = 1 run)
20 abmat sit ups
4 shuttle runs

Think I wound up doing that in a little over 17 minutes.

Cooled off, and did some assault bike for 11 minutes at a steady pace. Last minute was at a fast pace.

Missed a few weeks due to vacation and other shite..

Saturday:
24 min (4 people rotating through a complete 4 min)
M1: Max Cal Row
M2: Max DB Push Press 50/35
M3: Max Box Jumps
M4: Max KB Swings
M5-M6: Rest
Repeat for 4 full rounds

First workout back and it sucked. Started on Max PP and totaled 40 reps and dragged arse the whole time.

Monday:
30 Cal Row
20 Snatches 115/65
30 Cal Row
Rest 3 min
20 Cal Row
15 Snatches 135/95
20 Cal Row
Rest 3 min
15 Cal Row
10 Snatches 155/115
15 Cal Row

30 min Cap

I scaled snatches to 95/115/135 and finished at 22 min total

Monday x2:
4 rounds
10 S2OH 135/95
12 CTB Pullups
14 Cal Row
90 sec rest

13 min total. Scaled to Pullups but used Rx S2OH weight

Tuesday:
20 Rounds
1 Power Clean
1 Squat Clean
1 Front Squat
Add weight every other round

Finished at 200lbs.

Yea that’s awful